New uses of high volume wastes, such as fly-ash and cooking oil, can serve important environmental goals and at the same time provide useful products in modern society. This invention accomplishes this goal in providing a durable roofing shingle derived from waste cooking oil and a powdered catalyst, which is preferably fly ash from coal-fueled power plants.
Roofing shingles provide a weatherproof covering for a building. Singles are typically be made from asphalt, but synthetic materials are also used. The synthetic materials typically include a polymer, glass fibers, or a rubber-like component. Some alternative roofing materials comprise copper, tin, thatch, wooden shakes, slates, and even tiles of various forms. No existing roofing shingles, however, comprise any component derived from fatty acids typically found in cooking oils.
Asphalt for making asphalt shingles is manufactured from a bituminous material or petroleum, which provides a shingle highly impervious to rain. Bituminous material and petroleum do not contain fatty acids as used in the present invention.
Asphalt shingles typically include an outer layer of mineral granules to improve the weather surface and shield the asphalt coating from the sun's rays. The coating also adds color to the final product, and provides additional fire resistance.